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Documentary director Kaku Arakawa’s filming style — naturalistic, intimate and unobtrusive — proved essential to portraying anime powerhouse Hayao Miyazaki as a man as flawed and human as he is a visionary artist in “Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 31, 2025

Two decades of unparalleled access into the world of Hayao Miyazaki

Documentary director Kaku Arakawa has spent years filming the anime powerhouse to reveal the man beyond the myth.
Palestinian militants hand over hostage Arbel Yehoud to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
WORLD
Jan 31, 2025

Israel releases 110 Palestinian prisoners and Hamas frees 8 hostages

Buses arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah carrying some of the 110 Palestinian prisoners to be freed as part of the phased agreement that halted more than 15 months of war.
Eddie Jones watches warmups before Japan's test against France in Paris on Nov. 9, 2024.
MORE SPORTS / Rugby
Jan 31, 2025

Australia lines up test against Eddie Jones and Japan in Tokyo

Japan's Brave Blossoms are coached by Eddie Jones, who took the role after leading Australia to a disastrous finish at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Max Verstappen at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December. Ever since Red Bull gambled on a 17-year-old Verstappen in 2015, both sides have reaped the rewards: 63 wins, 40 pole positions, 112 podiums and four world championships.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Feb 1, 2025

Formula One champion is confronting changes off the track and on

The reigning four-time Formula One champion, who is set to become a father, has his sights set on a fifth straight title, a feat only Michael Schumacher has accomplished.
Manchester City's Rodri (left) in action with Real Madrid's Eduardo Camavinga during their Champions League match in April 2024.
SOCCER
Feb 1, 2025

Manchester City faces Real Madrid in pick of Champions League playoff ties

It is the fourth year running in which the sides have been drawn against each other in a knockout tie.
A Hamas militant releases Keith Siegel, a U.S.-Israeli dual national who was held hostage in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, as part of a ceasefire deal, in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
WORLD
Feb 1, 2025

Hamas stages Gaza beach handover as Israeli hostages freed

The arrangements for Saturday's hostage release appeared in stark contrast with scenes during Thursday's exchange in Khan Yunis, which was condemned by Israel.
Destroyed buildings and houses in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Feb 2, 2025

Arab nations reject Trump’s suggestion to ‘clean out’ Gaza

For Palestinians, even the suggestion of such a mass exile evokes painful historical memories.
Branded bags are displayed at a secondhand store in Tokyo in December.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2025

Secondhand shops rush for branded goods in Japan

Some operators have partnered with department stores, while others have use AI to determine the value of vintage luxury goods.
Japanese workers are increasingly job-hopping from one full-time position to another.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 3, 2025

Job-hopping Japanese workers push salaries higher

Job mobility in Japan has traditionally been low due to lifetime employment arrangements and strong labor laws.
The Bird of Peace monument, made of collected guns, in Podgorica, Montenegro, on Jan. 10
WORLD / Society
Feb 3, 2025

Mass shootings horrify the Balkans, but illegal guns still thrive

The region is littered with millions of firearms left over from regional conflicts, and the culture of weapon ownership runs centuries deep.
Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's president, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21
WORLD / Politics
Feb 4, 2025

Trump attack on South Africa exposes divisions over race and land

White landowners possess three-quarters of South Africa's freehold farmland, compared with 4% for Black landowners.
Fentanyl precursors on display in Mexico City on Oct. 4, 2023. Chemical components are said to be shipped from China to Mexico, where they are then made into fentanyl and smuggled across the border.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2025

How China allegedly contributes to the deadly fentanyl crisis

Chemical components are said to be shipped from China to Mexico, where they are then made into fentanyl and smuggled across the border.
Ryuji Kimura, 25, is accused of attempted murder along with other charges for throwing an explosive at then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida moments before he was to give a speech in Wakayama in April 2023.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2025

Kishida's attacker denies having intention to kill ex-PM

The prosecution plans to produce evidence showing the lethal potential of the pipe bomb thrown at Kishida moments before he was to give a speech in Wakayama in April 2023.
DeepSeek’s AI breakthrough has shaken assumptions about China’s innovation, highlighted weaknesses in U.S. tech restrictions, and reinforced China’s push for self-sufficiency despite export controls.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2025

DeepSeek forces a rethink of China’s ability to innovate

The Trump administration hasn’t outlined a policy toward technology flows yet, but it ordered a review of export controls on day one.
Brazil forward Neymar (left) fights for the ball during a training session at Rei Pele training centre, in Santos, Brazil on Tuesday.
SOCCER
Feb 4, 2025

Neymar homecoming is reminder of promise unfulfilled

Last week, 12 years on, he returned to first club Santos — Neymar the celebrity with unimaginable wealth, but a player whose fragile body has been badly diminished by injuries.
A vigil is held in central Budapest on Tuesday to commemorate a 43-year-old Japanese woman, whose charred body was found in a burned out apartment the previous week. Counter terrorism forces detained her husband, an Irish citizen, on Monday on suspicion of killing the woman.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 5, 2025

Irish man held over suspicious death of Japanese woman in Hungary

The charred body of the victim — the man's former wife and mother of their two children — was found in a burned-out apartment in central Budapest on Jan. 29.
A woman queues at Phedisong clinic on April 8, 2013, during the launch of the new single dose anti-AIDs medication in Ga-Rankuwa, 100 kilometers north of Johannesburg.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 5, 2025

'I don't want to die': Trump's aid plans incite fear in Africa

Trump's decision to pause foreign aid, and other orders and declarations relating to LGBTQ+ rights, have forced NGOs to wonder how secure future U.S. funding will be.
Japan's Kaori Sakamoto celebrates after finishing in third place at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Grenoble, France on Dec. 7, 2024.
OLYMPICS / Winter Sports
Feb 6, 2025

Olympics on horizon as China hosts Asian Winter Games

The Games crucially come just a year ahead of the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.
Manchester City's Erling Haaland (center of three) looks dejected after Thomas Partey scores Arsenal's second goal on Sunday.
SOCCER
Feb 6, 2025

Manchester City’s troubles spread from Premier League to politics

After years of dominance, this season Man City is regularly losing matches. But it is events off the pitch that risk undoing one of the world's biggest soccer clubs.
A representative from the prosecutor's office shows parts of an unidentified missile, which Ukrainian authorities believe to be made in North Korea, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Jan. 6.
WORLD
Feb 6, 2025

Ukraine sees marked improvement in accuracy of Russia's North Korean missiles

The increase in accuracy — to within 50-100m of the intended target — suggests North Korea is successfully using the battlefield to test its missile technology.
Ippei Mizuhara, former interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, leaves the courthouse in Santa Ana, California, on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 7, 2025

Ohtani's ex-interpreter Mizuhara sentenced to nearly five years in prison

The case involved the illegal transfer of nearly $17 million from the star's account to pay off gambling debts.
Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles helmets at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Wednesday, ahead of Super Bowl LIX
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 7, 2025

Chiefs eye first three-peat; Eagles out to avenge Super Bowl LVII loss

The Chiefs' run of good fortune has led to a sentiment among fans and media that someone else should get a turn.
People hold placards as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington on Monday.
WORLD
Feb 7, 2025

Trump to keep only 294 USAID staff out of over 10,000 globally

Washington's primary humanitarian aid agency has been a target of a government reorganization program spearheaded by businessman Elon Musk
Palestinians collect food handouts from a free kitchen run by volunteers in Khan Younis, in the central Gaza Strip, on Jan. 17.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 7, 2025

Halt in U.S. aid cripples global efforts to relieve hunger

The pause impairs programs that aim to prevent mass starvation and, more immediately, hobbles those meant to respond to crises and save lives.
“Light Court” (2024) is based on the “Lightcourt” space at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by metabolist architect Kisho Kurokawa (1934-2007).
CULTURE / Art
Feb 9, 2025

Yuki Harada's contemplative artworks ponder vanishing

The artist spent time researching Japanese migrants who left Hiroshima and Yamaguchi prefectures for Hawaii, and the U.S. island state often features in his art.
Ohad Ben Ami, a Israeli man seized during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas is reunited with his family at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, on Saturday.
WORLD
Feb 9, 2025

Hamas frees three hostages; Israel begins releasing Palestinians

Three Israeli hostages, visibly malnourished, were released by Hamas in a ceasefire exchange, while Israel freed 183 Palestinian prisoners amid ongoing negotiations.
Yellowtail is unloaded in Himi, Toyama Prefecture. Japan is looking to expand yellowtail exports to the United States, with China's blanket ban on Japanese fishery products still in place.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 9, 2025

JETRO to support yellowtail exports to U.S.

JETRO hopes to help expand sales channels for the fish in the United States, where Japanese cuisine has become popular amid an increase in health conscious consumers.
Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, speaks at a White House event with President Donald Trump, left; Softbank chief executive Masayoshi Son, third from left; and Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, at the White House on Jan. 21.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 9, 2025

How Sam Altman sidestepped Elon Musk to win over Donald Trump

After helping President Trump get elected, Elon Musk was poised to dominate the nation’s AI policies. But someone got there before him.
Jalen Hurts celebrates after the Eagles' win over the Chiefs in the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 10, 2025

Eagles QB Jalen Hurts silences critics with Super Bowl title and MVP award

The 26-year-old quarterback threw for two touchdowns and ran for another.
The first trial of Ryuji Kimura, who is accused of attempted murder and other charges for throwing an explosive at then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in 2023, at the Wakayama District Court on Jan. 4. The court will issue its ruling on Feb. 19.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 10, 2025

Prosecutors seek 15 years' jail for man who attacked Kishida

Ryuji Kimura, 25, is accused of attempted murder and other charges for throwing an explosive at then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during an election campaign trail in 2023.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan